Chapter 22: Deadly Breath

"Who is that?"

Lin Bao stopped laughing, then looked toward the speaker.

He saw a handsome young boy standing by the window. But he could only see his back since the boy was looking out of the window as if he was enjoying the view of the lake despite the fighting around him.

"Who are you?"

Linbao raised a brow. He had seen this young man when he first got here; he didn't pay too much attention to him since he was too busy dealing with Guo Wei, Zhou Tianhao and the two gunners.

The fact that the boy dared get involved even after he had displayed his strength told Linbao that this boy had something up his sleeves.

Linbao had been living overseas for many years and had survived many perilous situations thanks to not only his martial arts skills but also sharp wits. Even though the boy in front of him looked ordinary, he wouldn't risk it and lower his guard.

"What do you say, Zhou Tianhao? If we have a deal, I will help you finish off this scar-faced dude!" Chen Fan pressed on.

Zhou Tianhao was shocked by Chen Fan's sudden proposal. His knees seemed to have glued to the floor as he was not sure whether he should agree to the deal or not.

Zhou Tianhao's mind raced. Part of him told him that it was impossible for the boy to save him after Master Guo and the two gunmen had failed, while part of him wanted to believe that however unlikely it was, the boy could be his savior. After all, he was a drowning man, and Chen Fan was the last piece of drift that he could hold on to.

"Oh? Finish me up, you said? Ha-ha!" Despite Linbao's cautious nature, he couldn't help but get riled up by the boy's arrogant remark. Anger contorted his disfigured face, making it look even scarier.

Chen Fan turned around and gave Linbao a look:

"Yes. What level are you at right now? Phenomenal Success? What a joke. Even your teacher might not be able to handle me much less you."

"You asked for it!" Linbao's face suddenly hardened as murderous intent burning in his eyes.

In Linbao's mind, his teacher was so powerful that he might as well be an immortal. He had seen his teacher defeating his opponents with ease while being outnumbered a hundred to one. Regardless of the kind of situation he was in, he could always get out of it unharmed. Thanks to his power, Linbao's teacher was widely respected among overseas Chinese. Linbao was resolved to make the boy pay for his arrogant remark.

"I will chop you into pieces and feed you to the fish in the lake!" LinBao uttered his threat one word at a time, murderous intent in his words made everyone's hair stand on end.

Even Guo Wei couldn't help but grimace at Chen Fan's provocation. "What the hell is this boy doing? Didn't he see how powerful Linbao was?"

A-Biao was outright stunned by Chen Fan's conceit. He knew that Chen Fan was a fearless teenager, but he didn't expect him to be suicidal too.

He watched as Chen Fan got up and said thinly: "Oh, really?"

Before his voice faded, he reached out of the window and snatched something in the wind. Without revealing what was between his fingers, he glided the fingers across his chest as if it were a blade. Suddenly, he yanked his arm, pointed the fingers at Linbao.

A white light spurred out in between his fingers and shot at Linbao. As it traveled through the air, it also carved a groove in the floor.

"Swoosh!"

The table in between Linbao and Chen Fan was sliced into two halves. The cut was so slick that it was almost reflective. The expensive carpet on was also tearing itself open at the seam, opening a long slit that extended all the way to under Linbao's feet.

Everyone, including Linbao, was shocked by the development.

No one spoke a word as they looked at the ugly scar on the carpet incredulously.

"Shit, is this boy an immortal?" A-Biao's mouth gaped wide in shock, his voice trembled.

However powerful and swift Guo Wei and Linbao were, their abilities were still within the range of human capability. That was not the case for Chen Fan. No human was able to summon such a deadly force out of thin air to slice through a heavy oaken table and tear apart a thick carpet.

"This is not magic; this is a plus of Internal Force!" Guo Wei stared at the ruined floor and exclaimed.

"I have heard that martial arts grandmasters can disarm their opponents from ten feet away. I always thought it was just a legend. But I finally saw it with my own eyes!"

Suddenly, Linbao turned on his heels and ran toward the exit.

Linbao knew he needed to bug out as soon as he saw Chen Fan turn the parcel of air in between his finger into a sharp blade.

He came back to China to seek revenge, but he had found something else: A Transcendent Master.

Since his teacher was a grandmaster, he had heard all kinds of unimaginable abilities of a Transcendent Master. They could reshape the air flow and turn them into sharp and deadly weapons. Linbao knew that the Transcendent Master would able to easily defeat him even if he joined forces with ten other fighters as powerful as he was.

"Incredible! His power was already on par of a Transcendent Master, yet he is so young! Even for someone who was as talented as my teacher, it had taken him five decades to reach the Transcendent State. No, I have to let my teacher know about this boy!"

So thinking, Linbao picked up his speed. However, he heard Chen Fan's cold voice behind him: "Don't you think it's too late to call it quits?"

Chen Fan drew large gulp of air, puffing his chest up, and then blew all those stored air out of his lungs.

A ray of creamy white light formed in the air and shot at Linbao like a bullet. The white light glided across the air with incredible speed, and it landed squarely at the back of Linbao's back.

Linbao felt he was dealt a blow by a giant hammer from behind. Suddenly, his world turned dark as he lost balance. After he stumbled a few feet, he hit a wall and collapsed to the ground.

"He formed the plus of the Internal Forces by breathing into the air! How ingenious!" Guo Wei spoke in a trembling voice.

By then, he had no more doubts about the power of this boy.

Although he looked like a high school kid, he had already reached the precipice of martial arts: Transcendent State.

Without seeing it for himself, he would never have believed that a teenage boy would be a Transcendent Master. Even a grandmaster who was under thirty would be considered one in a hundred-year talent, much less a high school boy being the Transcendent Master."

Zhou Tianhao finally managed to gather himself and struggled to his feet. He hurried to Linbao who was still paralyzed by pain, and then he kicked him in the side with an ugly grin.

"Asshole! If I could destroy you years ago, I can do it again now! Hahaha. I will fucking kill you!"

Suddenly, there was a faint voice rose behind him: "Linbao is not dead yet; he simply passed out. Don't wake him up."

Zhou Tianhao's face suddenly paled, and the smile on his face evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.

He turned around and said, "Brother Chen, no, no, I mean Master Chen. Why don't you kill him then?"

Chen Fan rolled his eyes and said: "You have seen how tough he is. How am I supposed to kill him with a single breath?"

He then walked to Linbao and slapped his body calculatedly at a few spots, "Well, I have already dissolved his Qi Sea. He should not be able to use his internal force for a while. I will leave him to you now."

"Yes, yes, Master Chen! I am in debt to you!" Zhou Tianhao said with a toady smile. The sight of the middle-aged man fawning over a teenage boy made others cringe.

Little did the others know that the secret to Zhou Tianhao's success in such a tough environment was his shameless brown-nosing skills. He was resolved to keep Chen Fan close to him.

With such a powerful ally on his side, he would never have to worry about pesky martial artists who sought troubles and revenge.

"To hurt me, they would have to cross Master Chen first." Zhou Tianhao thought to himself.

"Master Chen, are you sure that breaking his Qi Sea would be able to prevent him from using Inner Force?" Guo Wei asked.

The Internal Force in the real world was very different than that in Wu Xia novels. Unlike the popular troupe in TV shows, the Qi in real life was not gathered together in Dantian. Therefore, in theory, there was no effective way to stop the flow of the Internal Forces inside of one's system.

"Yes. I have used a unique method to block a few critical Qi points on his body so that the Qi in his system would not conjoin." Chen Fan explained.

Guo Wei was shocked by the revelation. What was the so-called "Critical Qi points?" Why did it sound more and more like a TV trope?

The less Guo Wei understood, the more he started to respect the boy.

"Well, I have fulfilled my end of the bargain; now, it's your turn." Chen Fan said with a smile.

"Bargain?" Zhou Tianhao paused a second, and then he slapped his head heavily. "Ah-Right! Our deal!"

"You can rest assured, Master Chen; I will not short on even a penny of that ten million. As a matter of fact, I will double the reward, and I will have the money delivered to you in person!" Zhou Tianhao pounded his chest as he made the promise.

Although ten million was not a small number, he felt the price was well worth it.

An ally such as Chen Fan would be worth more than a trillion much less ten million.

Even Linbao was able to use his talent and accumulate a large amount of wealth; it was hard to imagine the tremendous benefit that Zhou Tianhao was going to get by allying with Chen Fan.

Linbao finally regained consciousness, and he gave Chen Fan an ugly grin.

"I have been defeated today. But I have to warn you that if you kill me, my teacher will unleash his wrath on you!"

Chen Fan cast a curious glance at Linbao, and then he asked, "You mean the Transcendent Master?"

Linbao nodded. However, Chen Fan was unfazed by the threat, he smiled and said: "All the better! I have never seen a Transcendent Master before, but I hope he is not going to disappoint me."

Chen Fan walked away as soon as he had finished his words.

"Now that's a real master!" A-Biao exclaimed. He wished that one day, he could be like Chen fan as well.